Araujo happy with MINI progress

Armindo Araujo says that he’s finally happy with the speed and reliability of his WRC Team MINI Portugal entry - and now it’s a question of driving to the finish to maintain his 10th place, despite the handicap of running first on the road.

“We had no problems at all this morning,” said the 34-year-old, who also finished 10th on his last outing in Mexico in 2010. “It’s just a pity that we are running first on the road, because we know we can go much quicker. But the feeling with the car is nice and the reliability is perfect. Now we are just concentrating on keeping our position: it’s too far to catch Nasser Al-Attiyah in front, but nobody is coming from behind us either.”

With Araujo’s turbo problems solved, he is confident that he can put an unlucky start to the season behind him and concentrate on improving. “We’re making progress with the car all the time,” he added. “With the situation we are in now there is no point to push so hard, which means that we can try some things that will be useful for the future.”

Araujo’s team-mate, the Brazilian driver Paulo Nobre, went off for the second time on the Rally Guanajuato Mexico this morning, taking a wheel off his John Cooper Works WRC just one kilometre into the 41-kilometre Otates stage.

He reported that there was no other damage to the car, so he should be able to re-start the final day tomorrow.